The Marvels

Imagine if in the DC Universe there was a hero named “Captain DC” and also a Ms. DC and they teamed up in a movie called The DCs. That would be just like this.

The Marvels is the newest addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It stars Brie Larson as Captain Marvel, Teyonah Parris as Monica Rambeau, and Iman Vellani as Ms. Marvel. The three of them get entangled, and they switch places when they use their powers. The rules on when they switch are somewhat muddy, but it leads to some fun situations and well edited action sequences.

I am not a huge Marvel fan. I haven’t checked out many of their films recently. In the past few years I’ve only seen Black Widow and Spider Man: No Way Home. I was hesitant going into this one (Tori and I went on opening night) but I ended up liking it. The theater was mostly empty, but the crowd was very much into it – cheering and hooting and hollering when something cool happened on screen (and during each of the surprise cameos).

The biggest things going for this film were the chemistry between its leads. They worked well together, playing off each other’s performances. I will also praise the fight scenes and choreography, which was clearly well thought out and very intentional.

There were a few things that didn’t work for me – I didn’t think Brie Larson wanted to be there. In most scenes when she was separated from her costars, her performance felt very wooden. The villain was one of the weakest in MCU history. Not in terms of physical power, but how well they were written. I do not understand her character in the slightest, which is saying something because she had a fair amount of screentime.

I think another negative was mostly a result of the massive amount of content that the MCU is pumping out. I often felt that I was missing so much context for not having watched every MCU movie and tv show. Despite the flashbacks in this film, I felt I did not fully understand who everyone was or why certain side characters were important.

Back to something positive, this movie had the single funniest scene in any Marvel movie. Without spoiling anything, it has to do with when Nick Fury realizes what he can do with the eggs he finds on the space station. When I say I laughed hysterically, I mean it. Well done, Marvel.

I didn’t love this, but I did like it. I’d give it a score of 6/10. If you like Marvel, you’ll probably love this. If like me, you fell off the Marvel train long ago, you’ll probably think it was fine. I am glad I watched it though.